See what's new with Notification Center widgets in Cydia
In the last day or so, another huge wave of Notification Center tweaks have hit Cydia. Surprisingly enough, there's a lot of variety to what has been released and they are well worth a look into. Here's what we got for this round of "Free Notification Center Widget Round-Up:"
WeeSpaces for Notification Center:
If you've ever used Multifl0w by Aaron Ash or CardSwitcher, you've experienced a whole new way of multitasking on iOS. WeeSpaces attempts at merging that functionality with the Notification Center. With it enabled and installed, you have access to your multitask switcher in the Notification Center, but instead of just icon, it has pictures of what application is which. You simply tap the icon to go into the application. On top of this, WeeSpaces even shows SpringBoard pages so you can easily navigate to those places from anywhere.
The idea of WeeSpaces could be potentially interesting, however I find a few major points that make it not up to par yet.
Here are my pros and cons:
Pros:
- WeeSpaces is a unique multitasking bar inside the Notification Center. It's not just an icon but shows what the application looks like inside
- From a GUI standpoint, the UI is not that appealing. The screenshots of the applications are not done live so, most of the time, you see a blank window with little indication on what the application in question is. It all depends on how the application is launched. Unlike Multifl0w, it captures a snapshot upon opening the application, not what page it was currently on
- There's no way to rearrange applications like Mutlifl0w or kill them like the regular App Switcher
Name: WeeSpaces for Notification Center
Author: F. Guilleme
Version: 1.1-23
Price: Free
WiFiCenter for Notification Center
In ModMyi's first article of "Widget Round-Up," we took a look at an application called MyIP which displays your IP address in the Notification Center. One complaint is that this tweak lacked content as well as functionality. WiFiCenter takes this notion to a whole new level and displays a lot more information when it comes to WiFi.
WiFiCenter not only displays your IP address, but information about your router, BSSID, RSSI, and CHANNEL. Plus, you even have a toggle On/Off switch to enable and disable WiFi. From a display standpoint, WiFiCenter is a great option.
Here are my pros and cons:
Pros:
- WiFiCenter displays more information about the WiFi network than just the IP
- You have the ability to turn WiFi on and off right from the widget
- For the amount of information it displays, I still think the widget is a little too big. I believe it would be a lot more user friendly if it wasn't so large. Condense the information and it could be better referred to as a reference widget
It's free on Cydia now so go download it. It's available on all iOS devices running 5.x+
Name: WiFiCenter for Notification Center
Author: Philippe
Version: 1.0
Price: Free
WeeSearch for Notification Center
With WeeSearch, you can search Google, YouTube, or Wikipedia right from the Notification Center. To search one of those networks, simply tab to that section, type in what you want, and search it. Upon searching the word or letter string, it will open up another application to display the information (i.e. search Google and Safari opens). You have the ability also to change the view of WeeSearch whether to the regular or slim view. The regular view displays all the networks to search on, while slim condenses the widget into as little space as possible.
Here are my pros and cons:
Pros:
- You have the ability to not only search Google but YouTube and Wikipedia as well
- Having the ability to customize how the widget is viewed is a plus
- Although not really a "con," I think a good incorporation would be to allow whatever browser you want to do the searching. Add support for browsers like SkyFire as an example
- Also, add some more important networks or even other search engines (i.e. Yahoo)
It's free and available for all iOS 5 devices running 5.x+. Download it from Cydia now.
Name WeeSearch for Notification Center
Author: Jonas Gessner (Maxner)
Version: 1.0
Price: Free
NCNyanCat for Notification Center
There's not much to say about this one. Basically, with NCNyanCat installed and enabled, every time you open your Notification Center, the Nyan cat animation plays continuously along with the timer. Upon closing your Notification Center, the animation stops as well as the timer.
If you're into the whole Nyan Cat thing, go for it. Otherwise, this widget is 100% useless and performs no function. There's no need to do pros and cons because there's nothing to it. Either you like, it, or you don't. Me personally? No.
It's free as well and is available on all iOS 5 devices.
Name: NCNyanCat for Notification Center
Author: Philippe
Version: 1.0
Price: Free
Calendar for Notification Center
One thing that Apple missed out on was a calendar inside the Notification Center. They allow for alerts, but no calendar itself. Calendar for Notification Center is a good start to getting a calendar at your disposable in the Notification Center.
Primarily at this point, all it does is display the month in question. So, it shows October right now and will change as the months go by. It's a good start, but not entirely useful yet in my opinion.
Here are my pros and cons:
Pros:
- It's the first calendar in the Notification Center - that's a start
- Although the screenshots on Cydia show that it highlights what day it is, for some reason, it doesn't show up on mine
- It lacks features. All it simply does is display a calendar - no appointments, reminders, alarms, etc.
- From a GUI standpoint, most of the calendar is unreadable. The gray is difficult to read and the clash between the red and the blue isn't that great
Download from Cydia now for free. It's available on all iOS 5 devices.
Name: Calendar for Notification Center
Author: tom-go
Version: 0.2-1
Price: Free
So, is widget round two full of more useless widgets? Or are you interested in any in particular? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
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